Stay Home Stay Safe Order

   Monday afternoon the governor of Washington State issued a Stay Home Stay Safe order for our entire state.  Only essential workers are allowed to work and the rest of the businesses will have to shut down for 14 days at this point.  The shelter in place order went into effect immediately for individuals and gave businesses 48 to come into compliance.  Honestly, with the cases in our state rising, along with more and more deaths and people who are battling for their lives, I am glad he finally did this.  Now I wait to see if Jeff's business will be put on hold and I think it will according to the classifications of what are essential businesses. I'm writing this post at 3:00 a.m on Tuesday morning, so it will be awhile before he gets home and I know for sure.

   To be perfectly honest, I felt a huge sense of relief when the order was finally put into place...but now the uneasiness is settling in.  It will be so nice to have Jeff home with me to help keep me calm and stable, but Jaysn and Rachel both work in Washington state (although they live in Idaho) and their jobs are considered essential.  Our son Chris, the cop, is also considered an essential worker (in Idaho) as are Josh and Lauren who are in the military down in Vegas.   Only one of our kids, Heather, is able to be home with our two oldest grandson, Bradley and Isaiah, full time.  Steven, our youngest grandson, will be in daycare alternating 2 weeks on and then 2 weeks off per his mom's work schedule.  Ok, so I am not going to lie, I am scared for all of them and for other members of our extended family who are at high risk.  Even perfectly healthy young adults and children are getting this.  There, I said it.

   The staying at home part does not bother me since I do that most of the time anyway.  We are well stocked, have implemented some addition security measures around here in case some idiot thinks it's a good thing to try and steal something, and I have my seeds ready to go to get our garden in.  Jeff has some projects that he wants to get done during his time at home also.  We are using Skype and Facetime to chat with our kids, grandkids and my parents and if nothing else, this is making us all aware of how precious our relationships are with each other.  My parents, Jeff and I had to have some hard conversations due to the situation we all find ourselves in trying to make sure that everyone would be safe and taken care of "just in case".  Those are conversations that you hope you never will have to have, but we did because we do all love and respect each other.

    Financially this is going to hit us hard but I know we will come out of it on the other side.  Our home is paid off so all we owe on it is property taxes.  Jeff can file for unemployment here in Washington and there are provisions for doing it due to this state of emergency that our state is under.  He has one paycheck that is owed to him for the last 2 weeks so that will have to be stretched as far as possible.  Our credit union is offering a deferred or skip payment plan for loans (which we have), so we will most likely take advantage of that so we can cut some expenses temporarily there. Jeff's knee surgery has been put on hold and we are praying he still has health insurance when the time comes to have it.  Heck, we are praying I do too since his is paid for through his work and I buy mine through his work policy.

   I'm glad that financially our kids are all going to be fine but I do worry about them possibly being exposed to and getting this virus.  I also worry about the grandbabies.  I worry about all my family and my friends.  Some of them, due to their jobs, have a very high chance of coming into contact with someone with the virus.  At this point, I would love to just have our youngest grandson come and stay with us but I can't because I am in the high risk group and that baby picks up every virus going around.   Jeff has been using disinfectant wipes on the truck he drives for work and uses hand sanitizer also at work and whenever we have to go out to shop.  He is so worried about bringing it home to me and let's face it, he is no Spring chicken and is at risk also.  Poor guy was having major anxiety that caused him to have heartburn over this.  I think staying home will give him better peace of mind also.

   I keep praying that I will wake up and this will all be a bad dream.  My mom said she keeps thinking the same thing (minus the praying part).  My friend Laurie, who I have known since childhood, is also feeling that way and she lives in Hawaii which is over crowded and there really is no where to "hide" from this thing.  We are living in some kind of Hollywood disaster movie and as much as I usually love natural disaster movies, this "movie" scares the crap out of me.

   Be blessed my friends, stay safe and please, I beg of you, don't wait until your state, province, national government says to practice safe distancing...do it now.  Stock up while you can and be prepared to be home for the long haul...I don't think this whole 14 days thing they say is going to be the time duration...I think it will be extended way beyond that.